Sancho was not so stunned but that he heard all his master said, andrising with some degree of nimbleness he ran to place himself behindDorothea's palfrey, and from that position he said to his master:
"Tell me, senor; if your worship is resolved not to marry this greatprincess, it is plain the kingdom will not be yours; and not being so,how can you bestow favours upon me? That is what I complain of. Letyour worship at any rate marry this queen, now that we have got herhere as if showered down from heaven, and afterwards you may go backto my lady Dulcinea; for there must have been kings in the world whokept mistresses. As to beauty, I have nothing to do with it; and ifthe truth is to be told, I like them both; though I have never seenthe lady Dulcinea."
"How! never seen her, blasphemous traitor!" exclaimed Don Quixote;"hast thou not just now brought me a message from her?"
"I mean," said Sancho, "that I did not see her so much at my leisurethat I could take particular notice of her beauty, or of her charmspiecemeal; but taken in the lump I like her."
"Now I forgive thee," said Don Quixote; "and do thou forgive methe injury I have done thee; for our first impulses are not in ourcontrol."
"That I see," replied Sancho, "and with me the wish to speak isalways the first impulse, and I cannot help saying, once at anyrate, what I have on the tip of my tongue."
"For all that, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "take heed of what thousayest, for the pitcher goes so often to the well- I need say nomore to thee."
"Well, well," said Sancho, "God is in heaven, and sees all tricks,and will judge who does most harm, I in not speaking right, or yourworship in not doing it."
"That is enough," said Dorothea; "run, Sancho, and kiss yourlord's hand and beg his pardon, and henceforward be more circumspectwith your praise and abuse; and say nothing in disparagement of thatlady Toboso, of whom I know nothing save that I am her servant; andput your trust in God, for you will not fail to obtain some dignity soas to live like a prince."
Sancho advanced hanging his head and begged his master's hand, whichDon Quixote with dignity presented to him, giving him his blessingas soon as he had kissed it; he then bade him go on ahead a little, ashe had questions to ask him and matters of great importance to discusswith him. Sancho obeyed, and when the two had gone some distance inadvance Don Quixote said to him, "Since thy return I have had noopportunity or time to ask thee many particulars touching thymission and the answer thou hast brought back, and now that chance hasgranted us the time and opportunity, deny me not the happiness thoucanst give me by such good news."
"Let your worship ask what you will," answered Sancho, "for Ishall find a way out of all as as I found a way in; but I implore you,senor, not not to be so revengeful in future."
"Why dost thou say that, Sancho?" said Don Quixote.
"I say it," he returned, "because those blows just now were morebecause of the quarrel the devil stirred up between us both theother night, than for what I said against my lady Dulcinea, whom Ilove and reverence as I would a relic- though there is nothing of thatabout her- merely as something belonging to your worship."
"Say no more on that subject for thy life, Sancho," said DonQuixote, "for it is displeasing to me; I have already pardoned theefor that, and thou knowest the common saying, 'for a fresh sin a freshpenance.'"
While this was going on they saw coming along the road they werefollowing a man mounted on an ass, who when he came close seemed to bea gipsy; but Sancho Panza, whose eyes and heart were there wherever hesaw asses, no sooner beheld the man than he knew him to be Gines dePasamonte; and by the thread of the gipsy he got at the ball, his ass,for it was, in fact, Dapple that carried Pasamonte, who to escaperecognition and to sell the ass had disguised himself as a gipsy,being able to speak the gipsy language, and many more, as well as ifthey were his own. Sancho saw him and recognised him, and theinstant he did so he shouted to him, "Ginesillo, you thief, give up mytreasure, release my life, embarrass thyself not with my repose,quit my ass, leave my delight, be off, rip, get thee gone, thief,and give up what is not thine."
There was no necessity for so many words or objurgations, for at thefirst one Gines jumped down, and at a like racing speed made off andgot clear of them all. Sancho hastened to his Dapple, and embracinghim he said, "How hast thou fared, my blessing, Dapple of my eyes,my comrade?" all the while kissing him and caressing him as if he werea human being. The ass held his peace, and let himself be kissed andcaressed by Sancho without answering a single word. They all came upand congratulated him on having found Dapple, Don Quixoteespecially, who told him that notwithstanding this he would not cancelthe order for the three ass-colts, for which Sancho thanked him.
While the two had been going along conversing in this fashion, thecurate observed to Dorothea that she had shown great cleverness, aswell in the story itself as in its conciseness, and the resemblance itbore to those of the books of chivalry. She said that she had manytimes amused herself reading them; but that she did not know thesituation of the provinces or seaports, and so she had said athaphazard that she had landed at Osuna.
"So I saw," said the curate, "and for that reason I made haste tosay what I did, by which it was all set right. But is it not a strangething to see how readily this unhappy gentleman believes all thesefigments and lies, simply because they are in the style and mannerof the absurdities of his books?"
"So it is," said Cardenio; "and so uncommon and unexampled, thatwere one to attempt to invent and concoct it in fiction, I doubt ifthere be any wit keen enough to imagine it."
"But another strange thing about it," said the curate, "is that,apart from the silly things which this worthy gentleman says inconnection with his craze, when other subjects are dealt with, hecan discuss them in a perfectly rational manner, showing that his mindis quite clear and composed; so that, provided his chivalry is nottouched upon, no one would take him to be anything but a man ofthoroughly sound understanding."
While they were holding this conversation Don Quixote continuedhis with Sancho, saying:
"Friend Panza, let us forgive and forget as to our quarrels, andtell me now, dismissing anger and irritation, where, how, and whendidst thou find Dulcinea? What was she doing? What didst thou say toher? What did she answer? How did she look when she was reading myletter? Who copied it out for thee? and everything in the matterthat seems to thee worth knowing, asking, and learning; neither addingnor falsifying to give me pleasure, nor yet curtailing lest you shoulddeprive me of it."
"Senor," replied Sancho, "if the truth is to be told, nobodycopied out the letter for me, for I carried no letter at all."
"It is as thou sayest," said Don Quixote, "for the note-book inwhich I wrote it I found in my own possession two days after thydeparture, which gave me very great vexation, as I knew not whatthou wouldst do on finding thyself without any letter; and I made surethou wouldst return from the place where thou didst first miss it."
"So I should have done," said Sancho, "if I had not got it byheart when your worship read it to me, so that I repeated it to asacristan, who copied it out for me from hearing it, so exactly thathe said in all the days of his life, though he had read many aletter of excommunication, he had never seen or read so pretty aletter as that."
"And hast thou got it still in thy memory, Sancho?" said DonQuixote.
"No, senor," replied Sancho, "for as soon as I had repeated it,seeing there was no further use for it, I set about forgetting it; andif I recollect any of it, it is that about 'Scrubbing,'I mean to say'Sovereign Lady,' and the end 'Yours till death, the Knight of theRueful Countenance;' and between these two I put into it more thanthree hundred 'my souls' and 'my life's' and 'my eyes."
CHAPTER XXXI
OF THE DELECTABLE DISCUSSION BETWEEN DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO PANZA,HIS SQUIRE, TOGETHER WITH OTHER INCIDENTS
"ALL that is not unsatisfactory to me," said Don Quixote. "Go on;thou didst reach her; and what was that queen of beauty doing?Surely thou didst find her stringing pearls, or embroidering somedevice in gold thread for this her enslaved knight."
"I did not," said Sancho, "but I found her winnowing two bushelsof wheat in the yard of her house."
"Then depend upon it," said Don Quixote, "the grains of that wheatwere pearls when touched by her hands; and didst thou look, friend?was it white wheat or brown?"
"It was neither, but red," said Sancho.
"Then I promise thee," said Don Quixote, "that, winnowed by herhands, beyond a doubt the bread it made was of the whitest; but go on;when thou gavest her my letter, did she kiss it? Did she place it onher head? Did she perform any ceremony befitting it, or what did shedo?"
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